How do you approach learning songs by ear in a difficult mix?

Add trem picking, slight bending and reverb:

Only listened to the lead, but that’s probably what they’re doing.

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Oddly enough it sounds just about right!
What tuning are you in?

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Standard, another reason why I didn’t even bother with the rhythms lol

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Which is weird, those notes should not be possible in B standard which they seemingly use.
Wammy pedal maybe?
Or something’s off with my hearing and it’s not D# chord but rather A# chord… which coincidentally is the first note of the lead riff you played.
I’m confused now :thinking:

They could be either pitch shifting up or just playing the root and using a harmonizer (which this style gets away with a lot), or doing a “let’s tune down some but REALLY tune down the lowest string or 2” approach, which I don’t think this style does as often.

My vote would be single string with a harmonizer. That would make tremming / bending a single string much easier, and would keep it in the tuning that you’re thinking they’re in.

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking initially - those harmonies are too perfect to be played separately, must be some digital sorcery.
I guess now we have a decent chunk of this song somewhat deciphered, however I think it was the easiest part.
Now off to the next, I’ll soon provide with an update on progress along with some more questions.

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Gotta admit, pitch-shifting up sounds atrocious and should be illegal.

Apart from terrible tone though it seems to be on point to my ears.
Now off to the next riff.

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Can you just do the additional harmony up? Probably would sound closer to the song!

I could hook up a synth pedal later and see if that would replicate it (I don’t have a pure harmonizer lol).

I did 4 tracks of rythm and 2 lead, one higher and one lower. Put them 35% to the sides, the higher one is pitch shifted and just a wee bit quieter me thinks, because there is something wrong with how my guitar is set up, mainly it loses all the sustain this high up the neck.

But I know what you mean - just play higher, not pitch-shift, right? Well, I haven’t practiced this riff too much, so I was making lots of errors on higher harmony.

EDIT:
Fixed just for fun, threw some drums to make things more spicy:

No, for real, I hit a wall atm and can’t figure out exactly what I’m hearing in next riff.

I’ve been trying to tackle the next two riffs (starting 19:04 on the album):
(https://youtu.be/m_SK1Gn63f0?t=1144)

and I think I’m sort-of close, but perhaps not there yet.
Would you lend me your ears again and compare what I got right / wrong?

I’m sort of stuck on this part.

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I’ll give it a shot maybe later today!

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I might have to check out on my monitors / better headphones, but I think what you have is right. There’s a chance that there’s multiple overdubs with higher notes that are being hit, with the notes in your clip being the more obvious “drone” in that section. I could also just be imagining things lol.

Trust me, I know the feeling :rofl:

Well, I am not sure if I got the lowest drone right, let’s call it 1A (there are two riffs, the first one has two parts - lower and higher).
1B I am almost certain is correct in terms of notes played, but I am not 100% sure if it is straight alteration, or if there is any groove to it.

Riff 2 is exact opposite, I think I got the lead guitar down correctly, but I can’t hear the rythm guitar very well. I think he starts with playing an octave, then raises 1st leaving the other note where it was, then brings it back up so there is an octave again, then lowers etc. but like I said, it’s all a total mush and I can’t realy tell what I’m hearing. I only know that midi I posted lately sounds weird to me and if someone would play it for me this way without me knowing what it’s meant to be I would not recognise it.
Luckily I believe this is THE hardest riff to transcribe on the whole album, so it’ll only get easier.

I think it’s time to re-open this topic…

As I wanted to transcribe all the songs from this album, now I’m trying to figure out the second track - Tides of Oneiric Darkness:

I think I got the beginning right (the melodic, fast paced riff was quite easy, underlaying rythm part - not so much, but I think I got it now).
I’m stuck on a riff at 0:48 though.

It starts like this:

What’s difficult is that I hear initial (pedal?) not is B, then lots of noise, and then some melody that at first is almost inaudible only to end on an F.
I thought it was in B harmonic minor, but there is no F in this scale, only F# (which would throw my first rythm part out the window, but I know what I’m hearing there).
So it is either NOT B harmonic minor, or they don’t follow the scale too close.

Also I think I hear some harmony in added second guitar, but can’t figure out what interval it is at the moment.
The way the instruments, synths and ambience are layered makes it very difficult to catch what’s going on.
Anyways, I came up with this:

It’s quite rudimentary and I don’t think it’s particularly correct, especially that I hear something more going on while the supposed pedal B is playing.

It would be much appreciated if someone more skilled than me would lend me their ears.

that just sounds like a giant wall of noise, quite a lot of reverb that mashes everything together.

maybe the mighty @JBakerman can help you?

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Pretty much, yeah XD.
However I very much like that vibe, it intensifies the mystery behind the music.
And it’s not just reverb though, on my cover of the first song of the album I used A LOT of reverb and it still sounds dry and not as powerful.

But I think I’m onto something, I was playing the album right before falling asleep, on tiny earphones and I think that the lead part goes pretty much like the piano I programmed, while one rythm guitar does three notes ascending (which notes?) before going into sustained F tremolo, and another rythm track just plays two chords (one is B, what’s the other one? what’s the voicing? I got no clue).

I still think I’m hearing one more track that would go same as lead, but in some interval. Or it may be actually the lead that ends on a different note than F, while rythm tracks end on F?
It’s mixed in such a way that all tracks blend seamlessly and it’s very difficult to tell them apart.
I’d like to know exactly how he does that.

EDIT:
This is what I got, sounds… close enough I guess?

I mean there is something in high register goin on as well, that’s why I think there are two chords going on in the background, first one is sure to be low B, the other one - I got no idea.

EDIT2:

Oooor maybe that one:

Because when I listen back and forth I think I hear a higher note in harmony with B, and if I’m not mistaken, it would be an F.
It’s hard to believe for me though, I’m sure neither is fully correct.

I think something’s changing on beat 2 of the second measure. Here’s my best guess after spending a few minutes with it.

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how serious are you? have you tried the melodic range spectrogram with the program sonic visualizer? this is like my last resort thing, and it is not easy you have to really devote massive amounts of time reverse engineering the thing this way. you also sorta have to understand how the program works, what it can and cant do. if this is no help then just work at it 1 second at a time, or even in quarters of a second if need be depending on how fast the notes are whizzing by.

Completely serious actually. I intended to cover the whole album in order.
First, I really like it. Second, I think it helps me develop as a musician.

I did try some similar program, and it was a mess. The mix is too busy to have a clear visual on what’s going on, eventually my trial ran out. I might try this one though.

It’s funny though as I revisited the song like two days ago and I think I managed to make some progress, at least I think have a rough idea what’s going on in the first half of the riff in quuestion, and then some later parts of the song.
There is some kind of harmony though that I am yet to find.

Have you tried contacting the band for help? Couldn’t hurt, they might actually be thrilled someone wants to learn how to play their material.

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